Must be a way
by SepticMind
Summary: When things are looking hopeless for Raven, Beast Boy always seems to be there to help cheer her up - and it doesn't always involve his bad jokes. NOT A ROMANCE. Rated M for sensative topics. ONESHOT


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Teen Titans. Simples. =^_^=

**A/N: I don't even like reading this kind of shit, never mind writing it. I'd so over done - it's become somewhat of a cliché. But I wasn't going for the 'poor-rae-overwhelmed-emo-bitch' that seems so common. I was going for a more calculated, calm headed approach; which is more Raven in my opinion.**

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><p>Beast Boy's footsteps approached me again, and I looked up as he grabbed my wrist, placing something cool in the centre of my shaking palm, closing my hand over it.<p>

"For Luck."

He offered me a lopsided, toothy grin. For a moment, it looked like he was going to say more, but he released my hand and turned to walk out of the room they'd built for me in such a short space of time.

The I wasn't seeing the blue and while walls, with the symbols my friends had taken from my books. I was seeing dark, greyish blue walls; smelling the usually calming sent of incense, mixed with something more coppery, more pungent...

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><p>It had been two weeks since the day of her birth, and Raven knew with a sinking feeling that she was running out of time.<p>

She threw the blade aside with a frustrated sigh, the metal glinting through the crimson stain as the empath crossed another line off the list in front of her. The monks had told her that a premature death wasn't an option, that her demonic blood and powers would keep her alive until she became the portal. But after she'd been critically ill during the Beast incident with Adonis... It made her hope that there was a way; that if she managed to stop her heart before her healing abilities kicked in...

But her attempts had failed, and she was running out of ideas fast. She observed those left on her list as she prodded absentmindedly at the quickly healing cuts on her wrists.

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><p>Beast Boy cursed at himself as he ran through the tower's corridors, shifting into a cheetah when he decided his human legs couldn't carry him there fast enough.<p>

Why hadn't he seen the signs earlier? Raven always had been a bit of a loner, but recently she'd been actively avoiding the team as though they were the black plague. She'd even missed missions. Then Robin had sprained his wrist fighting Cinderblock, and Cyborg had been puzzled as to why _all_ the painkillers were missing from the cupboards in the infirmary. That obviously hadn't worked, he was sure of it. But after she'd turned down a trip to the Pizza Parlous - something even Raven enjoyed doing - he couldn't help feeling something was very, very wrong.

As he rounded the corner to her door, Beast Boy morphed back into his human form, panting heavily as he smashed his fist against Raven's door.

"Raven! Open up, or I'm going to smash my way in!"

The changeling heard someone moving inside, then the door opened slightly, revealing half of Raven's face, her hood up.

"Beast Boy, what the _hell_ are you doing? And why aren't you at the pizza parlour?"

The boy started to blush at his mistake, and drew in a breath to reply, but paused as he caught a whiff of something coppery.

"Why can I smell blood?" He watched Raven's facer turn pale-er.

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><p>She had only four things now on her list; poisons, explosives, drowning and electrocution. She figured that if all those painkillers from the infirmary hadn't achieved anything apart from giving her an upset stomach, poison wouldn't do much neither. She wiped the first, frustrated tears from her cheeks as she crossed that off the list. There had to be some way!<p>

She regarded the next option with a slight wince. Explosives. If done right, it would tear her body apart before her powers could react. But if she did it wrong... it could prove to be VERY painful, and would tip her team mates off to what she was doing. She wasn't even sure where she would get the explosives from. The evidence room, perhaps? She couldn't remember confiscating anything explosive from any villain, but she had to try.

Her door shook in its frame as though someone had swung a hammer at it, and she glared at the metal, picking up the familiar energy of Beast Boy, his usually happiness overwhelmed with panic.

"Raven! Open up, or I' m going to smash my way in!"

She considered not answering him, but could tell he was serious just from the tone of his voice. Standing up from her seat at the end of the bed, she moved stiffly towards the door, pulling her hood up and forcing her facing into its usual blank mask. She only opened the door slightly, so he couldn't see into the room, making it clear he was unwelcome.

"Beast Boy, what the _hell_ are you doing? And why aren't you at the Pizza Parlour?"

Raven watched the boy started to blush as he drew in a breath to reply, but paused, a frown filling his features.

"Why can I smell blood?" Raven froze, feeling the confusion, then panic, and finally sadness pass through her green team-mate in such a flurry it made her head ache.

"I was... moving stuff around in my room... cleaning, and I dropped one of my ornaments. I cut myself trying to clean it up."

Beast Boy shoved her door fully open, , taking Raven by surprise as he brushed past her, entering the dark confines of her room.

"Get out!"

He ignored her, and Raven contemplated calling upon her powers to get rid of him, not sure whether to feel worried or pissed. Of course, she shouldn't have felt anything, but as the monks could testify, you couldn't beat the emotions out of someone, only learn to hide them.

"Beast Boy!" Her voice shook for a second, and she hated it. "Please."

He found the list first, and Raven let the door slide shut as she watched him read it, before calmly ripping into small squares, that fluttered to the dark carpet like confetti. The emotions coming from him were as still as an undisturbed lake deep within a cavern, and it confused her. Beast Boy turned and walked into Raven's en-suit, coming back with her small med kit.

"Well, you definitely didn't slack on the planning."

"Go away Beast Boy." Raven watched the floor by her shoulder, unable to meet his eyes.

"Why Rae?" She heard him put the emergency kit down on the bed. "Why would you do this?"

She sighed, figuring she wasn't going to get rid of him. "I had to try. If there was some way to stop him..."

"We will stop him - just not like this." The sincerity in his voice hurt Raven more than the healing gashes on her wrists.

"Beast Boy-"

"Yeah, yeah; he's the incarnation of evil. Tell that to someone who cares."

"The prophecy-"

"Isn't set in stone. You make your own path, Raven." He grabbed a small bottle of disinfectant and a soft gauze pad, but Raven kept her arms out of his reach.

"Don't bother - they're already healing."

The changeling shrugged. "Still, we don't want it getting infected."

"I'm not that lucky." Raven muttered, but held her hands in front of her, rolling the sleeves of her leotard up.

"I'm serious Rae. You don't know what's going to happen. I'll let you give up _if_ you've destroyed the world, and we fail to put everything back to normal."

He wiped the ethanol soaked pad over the cuts, that were now nothing more than shallow pink grazes. They wouldn't even scar.

"I can't take it, Beast Boy." She muttered so softly, Beast Boy wouldn't have heard her without the increased hearing. "I never wanted to come to earth; I never wanted to make friends here; if I didn't care for anything, it's be easier."

"Sure, but living a life without my jokes?" He grinned and Raven smiled slightly, "Impossible. Cheer up, miss doom and gloom. Even if you _do_ end the world, at least you lived a little. Besides, don't tell anyone I told you this, but we've been working real hard trying to find out stuff about Trigon, and trying to find ways to help you. That would be an awful waste of time if you went and killed yourself. After you've ended the world, and it's announced final, come find me and I'll happily turn into an Inland Taipan for you, and bite you."

"A what?" Raven frowned, rolling her sleeves back down.

"It's a snake, native to Australia. It's meant to be one of the most poisonous on land animals out there."

"Gee, thanks Beast Boy." She muttered, somewhat sarcastically.

His grin grew until his fang poked out over his lip. "You're welcome. Now, are you coming to the Pizza Parlour?"

"I should probably clean up this-"

"I'll help you do it later. Please?"

She started to protest, but it turned into a sigh. "Fine. Just, can this thing not leave my room?"

"Don't worry. I'm not going to tell anyone, so long as you promise you won't do it again."

She nodded, "I promise."

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><p>The doors to the holding room closed, and I glanced down to my hand, opening it to find the penny he'd found barely an hour earlier.<p>

"All the luck in the world won't help us now..."

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><p><strong>AN: like I said, this isn't usually my boat, but inspiration hit and... well you know the rest. I think I took most of Beast Boy's personality out of the comics here - but as we all know, there's a lot more to him that the comic relief. **

**Flame if you will, just let me know that you thought - my regular readers perhaps noticed I played with my formatting a bit. I don't think I've ever done past-shots like that before. Or swapped between POV so often. Whatever. **

**Yes, I will reply to all reviews :) **


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